Teck Theatre

766 Main Street,
Buffalo, NY 14203

Unfavorite 4 people favorited this theater

Additional Info

Previously operated by: Loew's Inc., Shea Theatres, Shubert Brothers Theater Company, Stanley-Warner Theatres

Architects: B. Frank Kelly, Richard Alfred Waite

Styles: Romanesque Revival

Previous Names: Music Hall, Shubert Teck Theatre, Loew's Teck Theatre, Shea's Teck Theatre

Nearby Theaters

News About This Theater

Teck Theatre

Located on Main Street at Edward Street. Built as Shea’s Music Hall in 1887, it was designed in a Romanesque Revival style by architect Richard Alfred Waite. It was demolished and Shea’s Teck Theatre was built on the site, opening in 1900. It was remodeled on February 7, 1946 as Shea’s Teck Theatre to the designs of architect B. Frank Kelly. The opening movies were Ann Sothern in “Up Goes Maisie” & Marsha Hunt in “A Letter for Evie”. It was converted for 3-projector Cinerama on March 16, 1955 opening with “This Is Cinerama” and ran all films made in that format (both 3 projector and single projector) until the Cinerama era was over. From May 1958 it ran “normal” films on the curved screen leftover from “single projector” Cinerama. Loew’s Inc. departed from the theatre and it was closed on September 28, 1979 for roof repairs. It reopened under new management on December 21, 1979.

The theatre was demolished in December 1982 due to the aftermath of the destruction of Buffalo, N.Y. Main Street during the disastrous building of a subway system. Because of the extended construction public access to that and other historic downtown Buffalo theatres was totally cut off causing their bankruptcy and forcing the theatre going public to attend films in suburban multiplexes.

The lot where the Teck Theatre stood is currently empty and covered with weeds.

Contributed by E. Summer

Recent comments (view all 36 comments)

MichaelKilgore
MichaelKilgore on March 15, 2022 at 6:25 pm

Boxoffice, May 12, 1958: “Flying the Shea banner once again, the Teck Theatre reopened Thursday (1) with a new stage, a new 30x40-foot screen, a new lighting arrangement, a new Altec sound system, a battery of new projectors and a new manager, Charles A. McLeary … (who said) "The Cinerama people subtracted 100 seats or so. We are leaving them out for the sake of roominess and perfect sight lines.” "

Cinerama
Cinerama on September 19, 2022 at 3:22 pm

I will be adding ads, pictures and articles of movies that played at the Teck theatre from 1955 to 1963 in about a month to https://incinerama.com/ctbuffalo.htm. Hey Kinospoter, you don’t have to copy my work to this web site. You can just post a link.

rivest266
rivest266 on September 28, 2022 at 1:49 am

Loews shut down the Teck in 1977 and is reopened by new management on December 21st, 1979. Grand opening ad posted.

Cinerama
Cinerama on September 29, 2022 at 8:50 pm

Hi rivest266, I will be adding ads, articles and pictures of the Teck theatre from 1955 to 1983 or whenever it was actually demolished to https://incinerama.com/ctbuffalo.htm in about a month. The theatre was closed 9/28/79 for roof repairs and reopened 12/21/79. It was not closed in 1977 or 1978.

MSC77
MSC77 on October 22, 2022 at 4:02 pm

A chronology of Buffalo’s 70mm presentation history has recently been published. The Teck is mentioned numerous times.

Cinerama
Cinerama on February 19, 2023 at 5:17 pm

Just added articles, ads, and pictures of the Teck theatre from 1955 to 1982 to https://incinerama.com/ctbuffalo.htm. Please don’t copy them to this site.

You must login before making a comment.

New Comment

Subscribe Want to be emailed when a new comment is posted about this theater?
Just login to your account and subscribe to this theater.